U2 posted a message on tweet saying 'Planet Earth is blue" upon hearing the news of the iconic singer's death on Sunday evening at 69.

Bowie - known for his hits like Changes, Ashes To Ashes and Starman - left a legacy created by pioneering musicianship and ground-breaking lyrics dating back almost half a century.

The Irish megastars have have always been open about the influence Bowie had on their music and career.

"What Elvis meant to America, Bowie meant to Britian and Ireland. He was a radical shift on U2’s consciousness," Bono said of Bowie.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2010, Bono spoke about the influence Bowie had on the band, saying U2 "owe him a lot".

"He introduced us to Berlin and Hansa Studios, to collaborating with Brian Eno. It’s the high singing, beyond your ‘man’ voice into the feminine. And there’s the staging, the attempt to be innovative.

"It has been pointed out that the Claw [the 360 stage] looks like the Glass Spider. Bowie wasn’t afraid to use scale, to dramatise things. His set list was not just a jukebox he could run through. It was drama."

The Dublin band along with groups like Depeche Mode, Snow Patrol and REM were introduced to Hansa Studios because of the ground-breaking work David Bowie did there in the late 1970s.

Low, Heroes and Lodger were recorded at the iconic Berlin studios and it was here that U2 went to reinvent their sound on Achtung Baby,

Bono also listed 15 of his favourite Bowie tunes, comprising of the Space Oddity singer's songs from 1969 to 1980 for Rolling Stone magazine.

"What I've chosen from David Bowie is very strict. It's my teenage life as a Bowie fan."